BP Offers To Plead Guilty For Alaska Spills

Law360, New York (November 28, 2007, 12:00 AM EST) -- Oil giant BP PLC is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor environmental crime on Thursday and pay a total of $20 million in federal and state penalties over oil spills in America's largest national oil field – Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

If U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline accepts the plea agreement, it will put a final stamp on the government's criminal case against BP.

Prosecutors accused BP of cutting costs “for many years without regard for the ever-increasing costs of running an aging oil field.” They...